Advanced Diploma in Early Childhood: Play, Creativity and Dialogic Learning

The Higher Diploma in Early Childhood: Play, Creativity, and Dialogic Learning, offered by CLACSO and CLADE in partnership with OMEP, the Dakar Forum Honduras, and the Education for All Collective-Guatemala, stems from collaborative work and ongoing reflection on the human right to early childhood education. It is based on the need to strengthen teacher training with an innovative model that provides simple yet powerful tools, fundamentally promoting inclusive pedagogy. It incorporates considerations of gender and intersectionality, encouraging the recognition of diversity and the civic role of children through a dialogic learning model that fosters playful learning environments with strong community participation from the earliest stages of education. 

Considering that the educational purpose, particularly in early childhood, Exceeding the limits of the classroom and the school, this higher diploma is open to the participation of professionals, education technicians, early childhood education teachers and those linked to Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE). 

ForTo move towards building citizenship with and for children, co-responsibility is central and requires a committed community. Recognizing and observing the cultural expressions of each person and their context, with an appreciative lens, allows us to discover and value beauty over vulnerability, and also to value cultural diversity, in the broadest sense of the word, as an ethical imperative.

With regard to the central thematic axes, this diploma opens space for updating on childhood issues, starting from their definitions and social, political and historical contexts, to educational and methodological actions, from a critical, reflective and proactive perspective.

It will be conducted in 10 sessions of 2 hours each, once a week. 

Today's society requires that the role of the school, from the earliest ages, aims to provide children with the greatest number of learning experiences, in which they learn and generate knowledge through play, creativity, exploration and interaction with the world around them. 

For this to happen, the knowledge and tools that teachers possess are fundamental. Their role as agents of social transformation will allow children to learn and enjoy themselves while simultaneously appropriating and participating in their culture, bringing the world and the community closer to the classroom. 

The benefits of early childhood care and education are numerous and extend beyond the individual, so it should be considered a "public good" that justifies public investment and requires welcoming and quality learning environments.

Access to quality education fundamentally benefits the development and lives of the most disadvantaged children and their families. This requires not only active and committed governments, but also strengthened communities and educational institutions, with teachers, families, and communities actively involved in their education, and a civil society determined to promote their safety, dignity, and rights..

In this context, the Dialogic Learning Model (DL), with its principles and educational actions, allows for the generation of closeness and trust between people, through horizontal and egalitarian dialogues, which recognize the cultural intelligence in all participants of the educational community (children, teachers, families, authorities, etc.), favoring and enriching the learning environment, generating conscious actions of transformation.

GENERAL PURPOSE

To strengthen the skills and knowledge of educators and professionals linked to early childhood in the region, through an interactive training program, with a focus on play, creativity and dialogic learning, as a model of inclusive community education.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

1. Understanding the current theoretical and conceptual frameworks that underpin early childhood education.
2. ATo critically analyze educational actions for early childhood, incorporating tools that promote pedagogical interactions at the initial level.
3. Understanding the key concepts of pedagogical inclusion in early childhood from an intersectional perspective.
4. Recognize and analyze the multiple barriers that limit the full development and learning of children in school, family and community contexts.
5. Strengthening capacities to design and implement inclusive learning strategies and environments conducive to early childhood, through interactive exercises and from the Dialogic Learning approach.
6. Promote effective partnerships with families and communities to co-create inclusive early childhood environments.
7. Develop a pedagogical proposal based on play, creativity and AD, as an instance of improvement for their own educational context.

The Higher Diploma in Early Childhood: Play, Creativity and Dialogic Learning is aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students; teachers of all levels; activists and members of trade unions, social movements and political parties; public officials; members and managers of non-governmental organizations and professionals interested in the subject.

The program consists of 3 modules. Each class lasts 2 hours and will be taught weekly in synchronous mode on Tuesdays from 2 to 4 pm Central America time.

Total workload of 128 hours.

The modules that comprise the Higher Diploma are: 

• Gladys Desirée López de Maturana Luna (World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP)) 
• Nelsy Julieta Lizarazo Castro (Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education (CLADE), Regional CSO with administrative office in São Paulo, Brazil) 
• Carla Gonzalez (Language teacher and tutor in the Coquimbo Territory Learning Community. Leader in Dialogic Learning, Chile)
• Iliana Lo Priore (World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP) - Teacher and researcher, Venezuela) 
• Mercedes Mayol Lassalle (World President of the World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP))
• Thais iervolino (Program Coordinator at the Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education (CLADE), Brazil)
• Jesus Juarez Reyes (Director of the Zacatelco Educational Development Center (CDEZ) and National Coordinator of the Campaign for the Right to Education in Mexico (CADEM)
• Carolina Osorio Agudelo (Program Advisor at the Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education (CLADE), Colombia)

Classes will be held synchronously on Tuesdays from 2 to 4 pm Central America time. Each class will include essential and supplementary readings, which will serve as the basis for discussions, reflections, and individual, group, and collective projects in forums and other resources and tools available in the virtual classroom. All activities will be supported by the team of tutors.

El Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) and Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education (CLADE) in alliance with the World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP), Dakar Honduras Forum and the Education for All Collective - Guatemala will grant 60 full scholarships registration courses aimed at public officials of ministries of Education and other ministries or institutions in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Applications will be submitted through the CLACSO website.

The available scholarships will be allocated respecting regional diversity and gender equity.